Brooklawn, NJ, smashes its way to 3rd national crown

Brooklawn, N.J., players pile on the turf at Veterans Field at Keeter Stadium moments after completing a 10-0 victory over Petaluma, Calif., to claim the 2013 American Legion World Series championship. (Ben Earp photo)

By Alan Ford

Published: Tuesday, August 20, 2013 at 11:57 PM.

For the crowd of 6,836 at Veterans Field at Keeter Stadium Tuesday night ready for the drama that normally is the American Legion World Series title game, there was a first.

The 10-run mercy rule came into effect as Brooklawn, N.J., made its point and took home the national championship trophy with a 10-0 win over Petaluma, Calif.

For the Brooklawn club (47-8) it was a 365-day journey – after finishing second a year ago in the ALWS, the team was focused on winning the big prize for the third time in the program’s history. Previous titles came in 1991 and 2001.

“From the first day of practice, this is what we were thinking about, we wanted to get here and win,” said Dennis Barth, head coach of the New Jersey champs.

“This is great, we wanted to win for my dad (longtime coach Joe Barth). We have a lot of people back home who were watching it on ESPN3 – my texts blew up … I got about 45 since the game ended.”

Brooklawn righthander Mike Shawaryn threw a four-hit shutout in the seven-inning contest. He struck out four and didn’t walk a batter.

Catcher Jonathan Theckston, who had three hits on the night and drove in three runs, has caught Shawaryn for a long time.

For the crowd of 6,836 at Veterans Field at Keeter Stadium Tuesday night ready for the drama that normally is the American Legion World Series title game, there was a first.

The 10-run mercy rule came into effect as Brooklawn, N.J., made its point and took home the national championship trophy with a 10-0 win over Petaluma, Calif.

For the Brooklawn club (47-8) it was a 365-day journey – after finishing second a year ago in the ALWS, the team was focused on winning the big prize for the third time in the program’s history. Previous titles came in 1991 and 2001.

“From the first day of practice, this is what we were thinking about, we wanted to get here and win,” said Dennis Barth, head coach of the New Jersey champs.

“This is great, we wanted to win for my dad (longtime coach Joe Barth). We have a lot of people back home who were watching it on ESPN3 – my texts blew up … I got about 45 since the game ended.”

Brooklawn righthander Mike Shawaryn threw a four-hit shutout in the seven-inning contest. He struck out four and didn’t walk a batter.

Catcher Jonathan Theckston, who had three hits on the night and drove in three runs, has caught Shawaryn for a long time.

“He hits his spots with his fastball, he knows where to put it and is always on the corner,” Theckston said. “He tops out about 95 (mph).

“He didn’t use his curve as much as I thought he would. But his fastball was so good, they weren’t catching up to it, he didn’t have to.”

The New Jersey representatives pounded out 17 hits on the night. Nick Cieri also had three hits for the victors while Fran Kinsey, Sean Breen, Tyler Mondile and Anthony Harrold contributed two apiece.

It was Cieri’s single up the middle with two outs in the bottom of the seventh that brought home the winning run.

Petaluma, Calif. (35-15), which had beaten Hawaii earlier in the day, never got untracked. The only serious threat it m